Families of Colorado shooting victims faced agonizing wait

Greg Medek was jolted awake. One of his daughter's friends
was on the phone. The news was impossible to comprehend.

Medek's 23-year-old daughter, Micayla, had been shot at a
midnight showing of the new Batman movie in her hometown of
Aurora. She'd been there with a group of friends. When the chaos
erupted, they made it out. She had not.

For the next 20 hours, Micayla's family would search for
her.

Her sister, Amanda, drove from hospital to hospital with
Micayla's photo, desperate to find someone who might have seen
her. Her father frantically pleaded for information from
authorities who had set up a staging area at a local high
school.

"They searched and searched and searched and searched for
her," said her aunt, Jenny Zakovich, who lives in Wisconsin.

Zacovich had gotten a call from her brother, Greg, telling
her of that 1 a.m. alert. "He was sobbing, 'I lost my Cayla, I
lost my Cayla. I want to bring my baby home,'" she recalled.
"The unknown," she said, "was just eating him up alive."

Medek was not alone in searching through that long night and
the even longer day that followed. As the names of victims have
emerged, so have the stories of their loved ones, many of whom
did not get confirmation of the deaths for up to 20 agonizing
hours. Police said all were notified by Friday night, but they
have yet to release the names of victims.

The theater had been packed with people in their teens and
20s, thrilled to have tickets to the local premiere of the
latest comic-book blockbuster.

Denver had been sweltering under 100-degree temperatures for
days. The theater offered an air-conditioned respite. And the
crowd was primed for fun. Some wore costumes. Others brought
their kids, letting them stay up way past bedtime for the treat
of seeing Batman come alive on the big screen. One young couple
even brought their infant son to the theater.

Matt McQuinn, 27, went to the multiplex with his girlfriend,
Samantha Yowler, and her older brother, Nick.

The couple had moved to Denver from Dayton, Ohio, last fall.
Both worked at a local Target, according to Robert Scott, an
attorney representing the McQuinn and Yowler families.

When the shooting started, McQuinn threw himself over his
girlfriend, trying to protect her from the barrage of bullets,
Scott said. Samantha's brother also used his body as shield, he
said.

Samantha was hit in the knee and is now recovering from
surgery.

McQuinn was fatally wounded.

His parents got confirmation late Friday night, about 20
hours after the shooting, Scott said.

John Larimer, 27, was another victim. A petty officer in the
Navy who specialized in cryptology, Larimer was stationed at
Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora. "He was an outstanding
shipmate," his commanding officer, Commander Jeffrey Jakuboski,
said in a statement released by the Navy. "He will be missed by
all who knew him."

The Buckley base also lost Air Force Staff Sergeant Jesse
Childress, 29, a reservist who had been called to active duty as
a cyber systems operator, the military said.

The Denver Post reported that among the other fatalities was
a six-year-old girl, Veronica Moser. Her mother, Ashley Moser,
remains in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the
abdomen, the Post reported.

Other fatalities included Jessica Ghawi, a 24-year-old
hockey fanatic who dreamed of a career in sports journalism, and
Alex Sullivan, who was celebrating his 27th birthday at the
midnight screening.

'I'VE BEEN SHOT!"

Micayla Medek had posted her plans for the Batman film on
her Facebook page. She had called her dad, too, to let him know,
said Zakovich, her aunt. "She was really excited about it,"
Zakovich said.

Micayla's friends later told the family that as the shooting
started, she called out "I've been shot!" and fell to the
ground, coughing. Her friends moved to help but were hustled out
of the theater by authorities, Zakovich said.

Throughout the excruciating wait, Zakovich said she tried to
keep the family's spirits up. She reminded them that Micayla
usually left her wallet locked in her car, tucked away under the
seat, when she went to the movies, so she might not have had any
identification on her.

The family heard rumors about more than a dozen victims who
had been hospitalized without IDs. Maybe, they thought, Micayla
was one of them. Perhaps she was too dazed to talk, to text, to
call.

Micayla, her aunt said, was "a free spirit, a happy person
who loved life" and was extremely close to her father. She
worked at a Subway - her Facebook page called her a sandwich
artist - and attended community college. She described herself
on the page as a simple, independent girl "who's just trying to
get her life together while still having fun."

ZURICH, Dec 9 Swiss luxury good company
Richemont has reached an agreement with employees on a
new round of job cuts, a labour union said on Friday, adding
that the layoffs were smaller than originally planned.

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